Coffins of the Brave

Lake Shipwrecks of the War of 1812

Kevin J. Crisman

Publication Year: 2014

In Coffins of the Brave: Lake Shipwrecks of the War of 1812, archaeologist Kevin J. Crisman and his fellow contributors examine sixteen different examples of 1812-era naval and commercial shipbuilding. They range from four small prewar vessels to four 16- or 20-gun brigs, three warships of much greater size, a steamboat hull converted into an armed schooner, two gunboats, and two postwar schooners. Despite their differing degrees of preservation and archaeological study, each vessel reveals something about how its creators sought the best balance of strength, durability, capacity, stability, speed, weatherliness, and seaworthiness for the anticipated naval struggle on the lakes along the US-Canadian border.

The underwater archaeology reported here has guided a new approach to understanding the events of 1812–15, one that blends the evidence in contemporary documents and images with a wealth of details derived from objects lost, discarded, and otherwise left behind.

This heavily illustrated volume balances scholarly findings with lively writing, interjecting the adventure of working on shipwrecks and archaeological finds into the investigation and interpretation of a war that continues to attract interest two centuries after it was fought.

Cover

Title Page, Copyright Page

Contents

Acknowledgments

Any project that has been in the works as long as this
book and that involves archaeological research on
so many different shipwrecks is going to accumulate
a long list of people and institutions that deserve acknowledgment
for their contributions of time, money...

Introduction

On a brisk, sunny autumn afternoon in 1819, Yale College
professor Benjamin Silliman embarked on the
steamboat Congress at Whitehall, New York, beginning
the final leg of a journey to Quebec. The cold weather
perfectly matched the professor’s internal state, for...

Part I: The Naval War of 1812 on the Upper Lakes

On June 18, 1812, the Congress of the United States
declared war upon Great Britain. After years of unresolved
friction over freedom of trade, impressments,
and western expansion, the US government gave
up on diplomatic protests and embargoes and instead
unleashed its army and navy. A country declaring...

1. “We Have Met the Enemy and They Are Ours”: The US Navy Brig Niagara

The surrender of Fort Mackinac, the capitulation of
Detroit, and other defeats suffered by the US Army
on the northwestern frontier in 1812 drove home the
lesson that military success in this region depended
upon naval control of Lakes Erie and Huron. Belatedly...

2. “Cast Away on the Canadian Shore”: The British Brig General Hunter

As soon as I stepped onto the beach I could see the
dark shapes a couple of hundred yards away, a dozen
blackened timbers poking up through the sands of the
Southampton shoreline. As I came closer, it was clear
they were set at regular intervals in a slightly curving...

The story of His Majesty’s Schooner Nancy begins
where the vessel’s career ended: at the south end of
Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay, in the little town of Wasaga
Beach. The town is renowned for its beautiful sandy
shoreline, a feature that attracts thousands of tourists
each summer. Not far from the beach is a small...

4. Echoes of a Naval Race: The Royal Navy Schooners Tecumseth and Newash

In August 1953, the tangled, skeletal remains of a ship
were raised from the harbor in the Lake Huron town of
Penetanguishene, Ontario. Excavations at the nearby
War of 1812–era naval base inspired town leaders to
raise a contemporary wreck for exhibition. It was only
after the salvaging that historians identified the hull as...

Part II: The Naval War of 1812 on Lake Ontario

If any single location could have been called the epicenter
of the War of 1812, it was Lake Ontario (fig. II.1).
Geography, not size, conferred strategic significance:
Ontario is the easternmost Great Lake, and the navy
that held supremacy here controlled the principal
supply routes for all military forces operating along the...

5. Fore-and-Afters at Fifty Fathoms: The Wrecks of Hamilton and Scourge

In a period characterized by flourishing trade on Lake
Ontario, ineffective American efforts to curb smuggling,
and heightened political tension between Britain
and the United States, two new schooners, Diana and
Lord Nelson, joined the lake’s commercial fleet. Diana
was launched at Oswego, New York, in 1809 and Lord...

6. “Anticipated Laurels”: The US Brig Jefferson

Joseph Delafield found Sackets Harbor, New York, a
sad, sodden refuge in the gray dawn of September 16,
1818. A member of the Anglo-American
commission
charged with establishing the boundary between the
United States and Canada, he had spent the summer
surveying the islands of the upper St. Lawrence River...

7. Frontier Frigates and a Three-Decker: Wrecks of the Royal Navy’s Lake Ontario Squadron

On April 10, 1815, the US Navy schooner Lady of the Lake
sailed into Kingston harbor, the Royal Navy’s base on
Lake Ontario. On board were Comm. Isaac Chauncey,
Maj. Gen. Jacob Brown, and other US officers. A line
of warships lay anchored adjacent to the King’s Yard,
but rather than resisting the American incursion, they...

8. “Smaller Vessels Are of No Less Consequence": The Browns Bay Vessel

The War of 1812 saw the construction of different vessel
types for service on the high seas, in coastal regions,
and on the inland lakes. The rapid escalation of the
naval war on the lakes created a need for greater numbers
of ships, and as the freshwater campaigns wore
on, both the Royal and US Navies built increasingly
larger and more heavily armed ships. There were exceptions...

Part III: The Naval War of 1812 on Lake Champlain

The first two years of the War of 1812 saw little naval activity
on Lake Champlain, a curious fact in light of the
American government’s stated intentions when it declared
war (fig. III.1). This region was the obvious starting
gate for any serious US effort to invade Canada.
The lake’s northern terminus at the Richelieu River...

9. “Lt. Cassin Says There Is a New Boat Near Vergennes”: The US Schooner Ticonderoga

In 1958 the town of Whitehall, New York, celebrated
the bicentennial year of its founding by raising the remains
of an old wooden ship from the nearby Poultney
River and placing them on display outside the new
Skenesborough Museum in downtown Whitehall (fig.
9.1). Among the artifacts recovered from the wreck...

10. “A Perfect Willingness to See the Enemy on Fair Terms”: The US Navy Row Galley Allen

Sailing Master William M. Robbins surveyed his battered
passengers through the pouring rain on the
morning of September 16, 1814. Almost a week had
passed since the Battle of Plattsburgh Bay, and still its
aftershocks consumed his daily activities. Standing on
the deck of the US Navy row galley Allen, he counted...

11. “A Remarkably Fine Looking Vessel”: The Royal Navy Brig Linnet

In the fall of 1949, Ray Stevens stood on the muddy river
bank that bordered his New York farm and studied the
mysterious shipwreck before him. Protruding from the
brownish water just a few feet away were water-worn
timbers, the remains of a vessel about 80 feet (24.4 m)
in length, whose origins and history were as murky as...

12. “It Has Again Become Necessary to Add to Our Force on Lake Champlain”: The US Navy Brig Eagle

This story starts with my first dive on a large, unidentified
wreck sunk in the Poultney River near Whitehall,
New York, in the summer of 1981. Seen from up close
in the brownish murk—and up close was the only way
to see anything—the mysterious hull was a confusing
obstacle course of eroded frames, jutting plank ends,
and rusty spike points. Beavers living in a nearby lodge...

13. “I Never See Anything In This World Like It!”: The Archaeological Legacy of a Naval Battle

Most naval battles of the War of 1812 were private affairs,
fought in open waters far from the sight of land
and experienced only by the participants. Plattsburgh
Bay was different. The British attack had been anticipated
for many weeks, and the slow progress of the
Royal Navy squadron up Lake Champlain was closely...

14. Conclusions: “Coffins of the Brave”—Two Hundred Years Later

Two hundred years have passed since the War of 1812
roiled the landscape of North America and the oceans
of the world (fig. 14.1). As wars go, this one was brief
and did not change the boundary maps. This is hardly
surprising: neither the United States nor Great Britain
ever committed the forces necessary to conquer
and hold large swaths of territory. After two and a half...

Appendix A: Principal Dimensions, Armament, and Broadside Weight of the Ships Built at Kingston in 1814

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